Hi all. I'm here asking questions about my mom, 62, who was diagnosed yesterday. She spoke with her nurse who said she has I guess two types of cancer. I am a bit confused so please help decode this.

She has DCIS grade 3. And was told she has an invasive growth right next to it which is grade 2.

So, Doesn't DCIS specifically mean it's NOT invasive?Is it two cancer types right next to each other? I'm soooo confused. We don't know anything else yet besides size, which is somewhere between 2-3mm (quite small).

We don't know receptor results yet or anything else. Just trying to clarify this new bit of info. Also any info on what the grading means in terms of treatment? So far it's looking like lumpectomy with radiation and possibly hormone stuff afterwards (we don't have those results yet). I'll be consulting google I'm sure but if someone can break it down at all, or of it means she's better off requesting more aggressive treatment, I'm sure she'd like to know. Thanks!

We're so sorry to hear of your mom's diagnoses. Yes, it is possible for her to have two separate types of cancer, and her doctors will likely treat her based on the more serious diagnosis. Once her pathology report comes in from the biopsy and the final pathology after lumpectomy, you'll have more information about the cancer and the recommended treatment.

The Your Diagnosis section on the main Breastcancer.org site is a great place to start putting the pieces together, including what size and grade may mean for treatment. We may be a bit partial to our own website and medically-vetted information, but try to stay off of Dr. Google, and get your information from a reputable source, such as our own site, within this community, or American Cancer Society, National Institute of Heath, and other reliable sources.

We hope this helps and that you get some answers and direction soon. Please keep us posted!

Invasive cancer (IDC) usually develops from DCIS, so it's very common (about 80% of diagnoses, I think) to find DCIS and IDC together in one tumor.

The IDC is the more serious condition, so while the DCIS needs to be removed, the staging and treatment plan is based on the pathology of the IDC. With a small IDC tumor, it sounds like your mother will be a Stage I, although final staging can't be done until after the surgery, which determines the actual tumor size and the nodal status. The amount of DCIS doesn't count towards the size of the cancer when determining tumor size and staging. Whatever is recommended to treat the IDC will be more than sufficient for treating the DCIS.

Good luck to your mother with her surgery. Hopefully the final pathology confirms that she has just a tiny, easily treated invasive cancer.

“No power so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” Edmund Burke

You are all so sweet for answering. I'm on the verge of tears and it's because of this compassion and not fear for the first time since her first mammo can back suspicious. Thank you. And no Dr google! I will stay here and do my research. 😁

That is usually done to mark the tumor for the surgeon. My hospital injected a radioactive seed to aid in localization, but some use a wire. I'm less familiar with how that one works, but I think in most cases it's done right before surgery. The morning of my lumpectomy they first injected the tracker seed, then took me to nuclear medicine for dye injections to map sentinel lymph nodes, then finally took me in for the actual surgery.

I had a wire inserted the day of my surgery as you could not feel the tumor. The wire was placed so that the surgeon knew exactly where the tumor was. The procedure was not very pleasant, but it did not hurt.

I was lucky and had the same-day wire insertion after I was conked out for surgery. My surgeon said that going through the dye injection is enough (for lymph node location) so she does the wire when her patients are blissfully unaware. I REALLY like her.

Ha AliceBastable, I had the wire before surgery (so awake but thankfully numbed up) and the dye injected after I was under anesthesia. I was SO GRATEFUL for that, that part had been a real worry for me. Glad I wasn't awake or aware.

I've had both and found neither of them horrible. The wire localization was done years ago while in a mammo machine. The seed implant was done last Nov. also with a mammo machine. My surgery was the day after with the seed and the same day with the wire.